Adopted
by neb92
Summary: Wyatt was left on an orphanage doorstep when he was one years old. Chris isn't the son of Piper and Leo, and he was put into an abusive foster home when his real parents died. They were both adopted by the Perrys, and what will happen once they are gone?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Charmed in any way, shape, or form.

**Author's Note:** Alright, I _know_ this is a rewrite, but I added five pages and over two thousand words, so _please_ review. I'm going to finish up FSC, and then I'm going to work on finishing this.

* * *

Wyatt held his younger brother Chris as their adopted parents' caskets were lowered into the ground. Their parents had deserved a much better ending than the one that they had received. Four days before, they had been driving home from their twenty-second anniversary dinner at the most expensive restaurant in San Fransisco, Charmed, when their little car had been blind-sided by a delivery truck. The crash had caused a pile-up that had killed Jon and Mary Perry on impact; nine people in all had lost their lives.

Thinking back, Wyatt realized that the last time he had seen either of his parents alive had been two days before the crash. He had stopped by to check up on his brother and to see what was going on in his family's lives.

//linebreak//

Wyatt picked his brother up and then dropped him onto the bed. Grabbing his younger sibling's arms in one hand, he used the other to tickle torture the eleven-year-old into submission.

"Fine! Fine, I give up!" Chris gasped, as he struggled not to laugh. "I won't make fun of your grades anymore!"

Giving in to the need to laugh, he writhed and wriggled, trying to find a way to get out from underneath his older brother's tickling fingers.

"I don't think that was the apology I was looking for!" Wyatt yelled as he unmercifully tickled Chris.

"Fine, I'm sorry! Just please stop!"

Grinning wildly, Wyatt released his brother's arms and dropped his hands to his side. "So how has school been?"

Chris lay there for a few more moments, trying to re-catch his breath, before he finally answered. "Everything has been okay."

At this, Wyatt frowned. When Chris said something was 'okay', it normally meant that everything had been going bad.

"It was that creep Ryan again, wasn't it?" Wyatt demanded, anger bubbling at the mere thought of someone hurting his younger brother.

Chris smiled sadly, "No Wy. It wasn't Ryan. Now stop worrying or you'll have wrinkles before you turn twenty."

Wyatt blinked in surprise. "Did you just make a joke?" he asked.

Chris looked at his elder brother as if he was stupid. "Yes."

"Since when have you been making jokes?" asked Wyatt, his shock growing with every word that Chris said.

"Since when have you been serious?" Chris asked sharply.

Wyatt laughed. "Touché. So what are the plans for your big birthday bash?"

Chris snorted. "You know I'm not going to invite anyone. The only people I would even _want_ there are Mom, Dad, and you. You are going to come right?" he asked worriedly.

Smiling, Wyatt replied, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

//linebreak//

Just after that, he had realized that he was going to be late for class and had rushed out the door. He hadn't even told his mother goodbye. Suddenly flooded with shame, he realized that he couldn't even remember the last time he had hugged either of his parents, or told them how much he loved and appreciated them.

And now he had to take care of Chris, and he had no idea what he was going to do. Both of his parents were the only children in their families, and his grandparents were all dead. He had no family, no one to help him take care of his brother who needed and deserved so much more.

Even worse, what if someone tried to take Chris away from him? Their parents had never been rich, not by any stretch of the imagination, and he was nineteen, still in college. What if social services felt that he was an unfit guardian? If they tried to take Chris away from him, Chris wouldn't be able to handle it. He needed stability in his life as much as possible.

Not for the first time in his life, Wyatt cursed Chris's former foster parents. They made Chris's life a living hell when he was younger, and had made it a mission to completely ruining his self worth and self esteem.

Their mother, Mary Perry, had been a social worker who worked on the child-welfare cases that got lost in the torrent of abuse and neglect in the city of San Francisco. When she had found a child that hadn't been checked on since he had been placed with his foster parents, six years before, she immediately got into her car and drove to their listed address.

When she arrived, she knew that she wasn't going to get a good reception from Francis and Julia Tellworth. The apartment building that the Tellworths lived in was unclean and peeling paint. There was no greenery outside at all; everything that may have once been alive looked like it had been dead for years.

Weeds grew through the cracks in the sidewalk, and she could hear rap music and yelling pounding through the walls of the building.

She hurried into the stairwell, and proceeded up to the third floor, where apartment 3F was located. She knocked on the door, and waited a few seconds before a male voice resounded, "What do ya want?"

"My name is Mary Perry, and I'm from Social Services. I'm here to check up on Christopher Johnson. Is he here?"

"There is no Christopher Johnson here, go away!" the gruff voice shouted through the door, sounding slightly panicked.

"Are you sure, because the last known address for Francis and Julia Tellworth was apartment 3F in Building 5-"

"Go away!" the voice shouted, "You have no business here!"

"Okay. Thank you for your time." With that, Mary promptly turned and walked in place, making it seem like her footsteps were receding.

About a minute after the end of the conversation, she heard yelling coming from the apartment. Hearing enough, Mary briskly walked down the stairs, pulling her cell phone out of her purse.

Stepping outside, she opened the phone, and dialed the police station.

The police arrived fifteen minutes later, and went upstairs. They had searched the apartment, and had found Christopher curled up in a closet. He had signs of several recent beatings, and was extremely skinny.

During his foster parents arrest, Christopher didn't make a sound. He was quiet all the way to the emergency room, and answered the doctor's questions in a quiet whisper. On the car ride to the social-services office, Mary finally gave up trying to make him talk. He refused to say _anything_, unless he was addressed first, and then only spoke with monosyllabic answers..

At the office, Mary found out that there was nowhere for Christopher to stay, and volunteered to take him home with her.

//linebreak//

Wyatt remembered that the three Perry's had taken trying to get Chris to talk willingly as a personal crusade. It was only two days later that they decided to adopt him.

When Wyatt felt something tugging at his sleeve, he reluctantly came out of his thoughts. Only then did he realize that the burial was over and everybody was leaving.

Looking down at his brother, Wyatt said, "Let's go home, okay?"

Chris nodded and the two brothers in everything but blood made their way to Wyatt's car.

//linebreak//

Phoebe had just finished her advice column when a reporter and a photographer threw open the main door and burst into the office. They were talking excitedly between themselves, and the photographer was holding his camera close to him as if it was a small child.

Her interest peaked; Phoebe decided to find out what story the two had cobbled together. "Hey, Brian! What do you have there?"

Turning excitedly, the reporter replied, "Just one of the best follow up stories this paper has ever seen!"

That was the catalyst, now Phoebe had to know. "Oh. Are you going to tell me what it is?" she prompted.

"You know that big pile-up a few days back?" Brian asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, we just came from the funeral of that one couple, you know, the Perry's. The ones that just turned into the wrong lane at the wrong time."

"I remember."

"They left behind two adopted sons, and the funeral had literally TONS of people at the burial. Apparently the couple volunteered and donated to several charities, and were considered saints by the masses."

"Uh huh." Phoebe replied. She didn't see how this was the best story that the paper had ever seen yet.

"Well, the oldest son is nineteen, and is going to a local college, and he was abandoned on an orphanage doorstep when he was about a year old. The youngest is turning twelve in two weeks, and his parents were killed in a car crash when he was only a few months old. He was rescued from his foster parents because they were extremely abusive six years ago, by Mary Perry."

"So, these saint like people were killed, their nineteen year old son is going to be left to take care of his almost twelve year old brother, and they were both adopted by the Perrys who, according to you, were almost saints. How does this add up into the greatest story the paper has ever seen? I mean, it's sad, and it's a really good story, but the best?" Phoebe asked.

"Just look at this picture." Brian said, as the photographer shoved a newly printed picture into her face.

The picture was of a burial, with about twenty people surrounding the lowering caskets. The two youngest people there were a grief stricken teenager, who was holding a sobbing child. Phoebe noted with mild interest that the teenager looked slightly like her brother-in-law, when she was thrust into a premonition.

//linebreak//

Wyatt and Chris finally made it home, after being stuck in traffic for an hour. The house that both of them had grown up in seemed cold and dreary, almost as if it knew that Mary and Jon weren't coming back.

Both Chris and Wyatt kicked off their dress shoes, before heading to their respective rooms. Wyatt slowly opened the door that guarded the room he had held since his early childhood.

He loosened his tie, and then stared at it for a moment before throwing it across the room. Wyatt went into a frenzy, ripping off all of his funeral wear.

Wyatt had just finished pulling on a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt when his door opened again. Chris stood outside, dressed in shorts and a long sleeved shirt.

"Can I come in?" he asked quietly, sniffling.

"Sure," Wyatt replied, patting the bed next to him as he sat down on it.

Chris sat down on the bed, and then asked the question that Wyatt dreaded answering. "What happens to us now?"

"I don't know Chris. I just don't know."

Chris buried his face in Wyatt's chest and started sobbing. Wyatt wrapped his arms around his younger brother, and started to rub his back, closing his eyes as he did so.

Neither of them noticed the golden glow emanating from Wyatt's palm.

//linebreak//

Phoebe came out of the premonition with a gasp. Brian and the photographer were surrounding her, both asking her if she was okay. Waving them off, she hurriedly asked if she could keep the picture, then rushed over to her assistants desk.

"Lisa! I need to go home, it's another family emergency-"

Lisa held up a hand. "Say no more, just go. I'll tell Elise."

"Thanks Lisa, you're a life saver." Phoebe said before running out the door.

Shaking her head in amusement, Lisa muttered, "That's what you keep on telling me.

//linebreak//

Piper sat crying in the attic, holding a small stuffed bear when her sister Paige orbed in. "Piper! I think I have a new demon- Piper, what's wrong?"

"Paige!" Piper stuttered, "I didn't see you there. Nothings wrong. So what's this about a demon?"

"Piper, don't change the subject. Is that Wuvey?" Paige asked as understanding swept through her. "Oh honey."

"I know I'm being stupid," Piper sniffled, "but it's so hard not having him here! We missed his whole childhood and, and-", she broke down into sobs.

Without a word, Paige wrapped her sister in her arms and hugged her while she cried.

They stayed in that position for ten minutes before they heard the front door slam open and Phoebe yell, "Is anybody here?"

"Up here Phoebe!" Paige yelled back.

They heard high heels clattering on the stairs before Phoebe burst into the room. "You will never guess what I just had a premonition about!"

Piper pulled away from Paige and wiped her eyes, before asking, "What did you see?"

"I saw Wyatt!" was the reply.

"What?" Piper asked.

"I saw Wyatt and his little brother." Phoebe said.

"That's impossible. Wyatt was an only child." Piper barked, upset that her sister would lie about something that hurt her so much.

Phoebe sighed impatiently, "We know that Wyatt was adopted, right?"

"Yes, that's why the Elders said we couldn't get Wyatt back after we managed to vanquish Zankou." Piper said slowly.

"So who's to say that Wyatt's adopted parents didn't adopt another child?" Paige asked, starting to catch on.

"Exactly!" Phoebe said, glad that they were on the same page. Or not.

"It doesn't matter if you had a premonition anyways," Piper argued, "The Elders won't let us try to find Wyatt because of his adoptive parents."

"But that's just it! Do you remember that bad pile-up a week ago?" Phoebe asked. When both of her sisters nodded, she continued, "The Perry's are the follow up story for that. I saw Brian and a photographer coming into the office, and I asked what they were so excited about.

"They told me that the Perry's had two adopted sons, Wyatt and Chris, and they printed a picture out for me. The older brother looks like Leo Piper! And his name was Wyatt. We made sure to leave a blanket with him that had his name on it, so that he kept his first name, if not his last."

"Just because his name is Wyatt and he looks like Leo doesn't make him our nephew Phoebe!" Paige said.

"But that's where the premonition comes in! I saw Wyatt holding Chris, and his hands were glowing gold when he was rubbing his back! I mean, white lighters can't heal emotional pain, but they can help a little. And besides, Wyatt is Twice-Blessed!"

"And you say that his parents just died?" Paige asked.

Phoebe nodded. "Yeah, their funeral was a few hours ago."

"So the Elders can't stop us from trying to get to him! And since when have we listened to the Elders anyway?" Piper said loudly.

Phoebe nodded, and was about to yell, 'Let's go!' when Paige said quietly, "But who says he wants to meet us? He just lost the people he's called 'Mom' and 'Dad' all his life. He would feel like he were betraying his parents if he got close to us. Not to mention the fact that we _abandoned_ him, which would bring emotional problems even if he had loving parents."

Piper opened her mouth to protest, but Phoebe cut her off. "You're right. I was so excited about finding him that I didn't think about _him_. What if he doesn't _want_ anything to do with us?"

"Wait a minute," Piper said, "Didn't you say that he was healing this kid's pain?"

"Yeah..." Phoebe said slowly, not understanding.

"Well then that means that his powers are unbound! Whether he wants anything to do with us or not, we have to help him. He won't have any control over _any_ of his powers." Piper exclaimed worriedly.

"Well then that settles it!" Paige said, "We need to find out where Wyatt is and tell him what's going on. Just after we vanquish that demon I went after this morning."

"What demon?" Phoebe and Piper asked at the same time when a demon flamed into the attic.

"I've got you now, witches!"

//linebreak//

Wyatt slowly ran his hand through Chris's hair as he slept on Wyatt's bed. Chris needed so much. What if Wyatt couldn't provide for his younger brother?

Chris had so many issues to deal with. He suffered from depression, and didn't think that his life was worth anything as long as other people were still hurting. Both were a lasting mark from Chris's time with the Tellworths.

Wyatt growled again; if he ever got his hands on those people…

Whether he could provide for Chris or not though, he didn't think Chris would care as long as Wyatt was with him.

Slowly, Chris stirred. "Wy?" he asked sleepily.

Smiling, Wyatt said, "Yeah."

"Why did they leave us?" he asked, emerald green eyes swimming with tears as they met Wyatt's blue.

"I don't know," Wyatt said, now fighting back tears as well. "I know that they didn't want to."

"Yeah," Chris said, "I know."

//linebreak//

"Phoebe watch out!" Piper yelled as the demon threw an athame at her sister.

Phoebe turned and saw the danger she was in, but it was too late for her to dodge the knife heading towards her.

Just before the athame would have entered her chest, her younger sister called out, "Athame!", and it orbed into her hand. With another call of "Demon!", she sent it into the demon's heart, and flames began to lick at it's feet.

"Quick, read the spell!" Piper shouted.

They scrambled together while Phoebe pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. "_Cursed _d_emon from the Underworld, Your evil will cause no more hurt; All pain to mortals you have caused, Let it vanquish you to the pits of hell."_

The flames flicking at the demon suddenly burst into an inferno with such heat that it forced the sisters to avert their faces. A minute later, the demon exploded with one last shriek of agony, and the Charmed Ones sighed in relief.

"Paige," Phoebe said, "that spell sucks."

Paige looked down at the floor and Piper snorted, "At least it wasn't a haiku again."

Paige looked up angrily, "Hey! It worked, didn't it?"

"Forget that!" Piper said as her eyes lit up and walked to the door. "We need to go find Wyatt!"

"Um, aren't you forgetting something?" Phoebe asked as she watched her sister head down the steps.

"What do you mean? Oh, right! We need to tell Leo! He's going to ecstatic!"

Piper opened her mouth to call her husband's name, when Paige cut her off. "No sweetie, she means it's one in the morning, and no one answers their door this early."

"But we should still tell Leo," Phoebe added thoughtfully.

Piper glanced at her watch and sighed in defeat. They would have to wait for tomorrow to find Wyatt, but she could tell Leo now...

After they had had to bind Wyatt's powers and give him up for adoption because of the demon Zankou, their relationship had been strained. They still loved each other and they were still married, but they had been 'separated' for over fifteen years.

Piper bid both of her sisters good night as they left to go to their own families, before gathering up her courage and calling for her husband. "Leo!"

A few seconds passed before a flurry of orbs surrounded by a holy blue light came down through the ceiling and coalesced into her husband. He stepped forward and embraced her. "Hey."

"Hey," Piper smiled back. "We found him."

Leo blinked back tears and smiled. "I know, the Elders told me when they made Paige and I their white lighters"

"God Leo, we finally _found_ him!" Piper exclaimed as she kissed him.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Now, don't forget to review ya'll! Talk to you later! 

Neb92

Current Word Count:

3280

Edited On:

8/31/07 - minor corrections


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Charmed in any way, shape, or form. No matter how mcuh I wish I do...

**Author's Note:** I'm sorry that it took me so long to update... I had issues typing it, until I sat down and didn't do anything else. This chapter is about a thousand words shorter than the first one, because I found the perfect place to stop. I'm going to start working on the next one now, and maybe I'll get a few ahead!

* * *

Wyatt startled awake when he felt his younger brother shifting underneath the arm he had wrapped around him. He sat up to look at Chris and groaned at the sight that lay before him. 

His little brother's face was white in contrast against the dark hair that was matted to his head with sweat. Chris's body was twisting and writhing as the horrifying nightmare shadowed itself through his mind. He was whispering pleas to stop, that it wasn't his fault, and that he was sorry.

Wyatt bit his lower lip to push back the pain that he felt for his younger brother. God, he was having nightmares about those _monsters_ again! He hadn't had nightmares since he had been able to sleep in his own room about three years before.

Chris had suffered from nightmares ever since he had been rescued from the Tellworths, and the psychiatrists that he had seen had said that he would be an insomniac for the rest of his life. He had eventually stopped having nightmares after sharing a room with Wyatt for over two years, but would awaken at the slightest noise.

Wyatt hesitantly shook his younger brother awake, worried about how he would react to being awoken in this manner. Chris threw himself forward, unseeing eyes searching the room for non-existent attackers.

"Chris?" Wyatt asked hesitantly as he put a comforting hand forward. "Chris, are you alright?" The hand almost touched Chris's face when he flinched backwards. "Chris, its me, Wyatt. It was just a dream. Chris?"

Slowly, emerald eyes rose to meet sapphire. After a few seconds of internal battle, Chris fell against Wyatt and began to sob. Wyatt wrapped his arms around his younger brother and whispered comforting words.

//linebreak//

The three Charmed Ones and their whitelighter stood just in front of the door. "Are you sure about this?" Phoebe asked. "Maybe we should wait for a while, like a month or two?"

Piper looked at her sister incredulously. "Are you serious? His powers are unbound! We _need_ to teach him how to control his powers before he accidentally kills someone."

"Do you think he'll kill someone?" Paige asked worriedly.

"Not on purpose," Piper said, "but if his powers go out of control, he might!"

Paige glanced at the front door of the house. "Maybe we should bind his powers again." she said at last.

"Paige! We can't!" Piper disagreed. "We just found him, and- And- Paige, I can't lose him again. Something like a car accident could take him away again, and I don't think-" Finally, Piper stopped. She took a moment to compose herself before addressing her husband and two sisters. "We need to get to him and get as close as possible before something happens."

Paige cast a sorrowful look at her sister. "Piper, I was just saying that maybe now isn't the right time. He just lost his parents, and he has an adoptive little brother who was abused for the first six years of his life. He has enough to deal with without the people who _abandoned_ him suddenly coming back into his life, telling him these wild stories about magical powers!"

Piper looked taken aback for a second before her face set stubbornly. "Paige, I know that he's going through a lot right now, but if we don't train him now, the demons will kill him and this Chris person. It took half the magical community and a hell of a lot of favors being called in to get his powers bound the first time!"

"Girls!" Leo interrupted. "You're both right. Wyatt really doesn't need this right now, but he'll have to handle it. There is no way that we can get his powers bound again, because they'll have grown by now. Whether its the right thing to do or not, we have to do it."

Phoebe chose then to voice her thoughts, "I think Leo's right. It won't make things easy, but it would be worse if something happened before we had the chance to train him, it would make this situation harder."

"Fine," Paige relented. "You guys are right, but I want to make sure that my point is understood. We can't go in there and be all lovey-dovey. If we do, he'll probably call the cops. We have to take it slow, revealing things a little bit at a time."

The group nodded and looked at the door as one. Nervously, Piper reached for the door bell and rang it.

A few seconds later, the door opened. "Hello, can I help you with something?"

Everyone stared at him and he shuffled nervously. "Do you guys need something? My little brother just got to sleep and I'd kind of like to join him..."

It was then that they noticed the dark circles and blood-shot eyes. Phoebe came out of her daze first. "You're Wyatt Perry right?"

Wyatt's shoulders slumped a little, and he replied, "Yeah. Listen, if you guys are here for an interview, then you're out of luck. I really just want to go to sleep."

"No!" Piper exclaimed, startling the tired teen. "We wanted to talk to you about something else actually."

"What is it? I really don't want my brother to wake up," Wyatt replied wearily.

Wordlessly, Piper pulled a baby blue blanket out of her purse that had the tri-quetra sewn in silver on a corner. Wyatt looked at the blanket without recognition for a few seconds before his eyes widened in recognition. "That looks like- No. There's no way. I think you should go no." Wyatt turned around and was about to close the door when Piper reached out and touched his arm.

Wyatt stiffened and stared straight at Piper. A few moments later he blinked a few times and shook his head. "What in the hell was that?" he asked.

Piper opened her mouth to answer when they heard a voice from inside the house. "Wyatt?"

Wyatt turned to the voice and asked, "Chris, did we wake you up? Why don't you go back to bed?"

Chris approached the door and the group outside saw him for the first time. He looked terrible with large dark circles under his eyes, and an air about him that practically screamed 'Pity me!'. He wore a black long sleeved shirt and black pajama bottoms, and hesitantly regarded the people outside of his house. "Who are they?" he asked Wyatt quietly before he noticed the blanket. His eyes lit up in recognition though his face remained passive.

"They're just people who wanted to say that they are sorry for Mom and Dad." Wyatt replied nervously, silently begging his 'family' to agree.

"We're extremely sorry for your loss," Phoebe said sadly.

"Thank you," Wyatt said, "but I think we need to go back to sleep."

"Alright. Maybe we'll talk to you later," Piper said. "'Bye Chris."

"Goodbye," was the quite response as the door closed.

//linebreak//

"Are you sure you don't want me to sleep in your room with you?" Wyatt asked as they headed back towards their rooms.

"I'm fine. Besides, you won't sleep if you are in my room," Chris replied, "You'd be too busy making sure that I don't have nightmares."

Wyatt snorted. "Can you blame me? You've barely slept at all in the last week."

Chris glared at his older brother. "Its not like I don't want to! Besides, its kind of hard to sleep when you breathe so heavily. Honestly, I could hear you coming from a mile off from your breathing alone!"

"You'd know if I was coming whether I was breathing hard or not," Wyatt shot back. "Its impossible to sneak up on you. Are you absolutely sure that you don't want me to? You need sleep more than I do..."

"I'm fine Wyatt," Chris wearily said to his over-protective older brother, "I really just want to think for a while, and its hard to do that when I'm not alone. Please Wy? I really just need to be alone for a little while."

"Fine, but if you need _anything_ wake me up, alright?"

Chris assured him that he would and went into his room. Wyatt stared at the closed door for a few minutes and finally gave in, moving to his room. He never heard the suppressed sobs coming from underneath the door.

//linebreak//

"Well, that could have gone better," Paige said as they entered the Manor. "I mean, the only reason he didn't explode was because Chris showed up."

"Maybe you were right Paige," said Leo as he hung up his coat, "Wyatt didn't seem happy to see us."

Phoebe snorted. "That's an understatement, he was furious! He would have been yelling if he wasn't afraid of waking Chris up."

"Chris really saved our butts, showing up when he did," Paige remarked.

"Yeah," Phoebe said, "but he was just as angry as Wyatt."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked, "I didn't think he cared one way or the other about us."

"He was abused Piper!" Phoebe yelled. "I'm sure he knows how to hide his emotions from people he doesn't want to know them. You were right though, he didn't care until he saw the blanket, then he felt, he felt horrible. He was scared, angry, envious, nervous, and God knows what else!"

"You mean he recognized the blanket?" Leo asked.

"Yeah. He realized what it was faster than Wyatt and then started freaking out," Phoebe replied thoughtfully.

The group pondered this for a moment before Paige looked at her watch. "Damn it, I need to go to Junior's Parent Teacher Conference. Piper, Leo, I'm _so_ sorry."

"Oh, it is getting late," Phoebe said, "I promised Elise that I would go in today and work on my column.

"Its fine, we can't do anything else today anyways," Leo reassured.

After the two women had left, Leo turned to his wife. "Are you okay Piper? You've hardly said anything since we left Wyatt's house."

Piper turned her back to her husband and her shoulders started to shake. "Piper?" Leo tentatively asked, "Are you okay?"

"Of course Leo," said Piper without turning around, "I'm fine."

Leo wrapped his wife in a hug and held her as she cried. "God Leo!" she finally said, "He hated us so much! I didn't think-" she cut of suddenly.

"You thought that he would welcome us back into his life with open arms?" Leo asked.

"No, of course not. After all, he just lost the people that raised him and I knew it would be hard to just accept us into his life, but he acted like he didn't want anything to do with us!"

Leo chuckled mirthlessly. "I knew this was a bad idea from the start. I want to have Wyatt back into our lives just as much as you, but I knew he needed time."

"Why didn't you stop us?" Piper asked as the tears poured down her face.

"I knew you wouldn't listen. You're just so stubborn when you set your mind to do something, and its something I love about you," Leo replied.

"Maybe we should wait a while before we try again," Piper said. "A week maybe?"

"I think a week would be perfect. It gives us time to come up with a plan and it gives him enough time to get used to the idea that we exist."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Alright, don't forget to give me a review! 

Current Word Count:

5183

Edited On:

10/13/07: Changed the wording on one sentence so that it reads better and made minor corrections


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed nor any of it's characters.

Author's Note: Okay, I know I took forever to update, and I am SO sorry. I was stuck on the last couple of lines, and I wasn't sure how I was going to end it. But here it is, and it looks so good. I hope that you guys enjoy it.

Love ya'll so much for taking the time out of your daily lives to read my story!

Neb

* * *

Wyatt unlocked the front door of his family home and threw his school bag to the side of the hallway. "Hey Chris, I'm home! Chris, are you here?" 

"I'm in my room," Chris shouted back from the other end of the house. "I'll be out in a second!"

"Alright."

"Did you remember to bring dinner home or do I need to grease the frying pan?"

"I brought home some drive-thru, so don't worry about it." Wyatt would have made dinner himself, but he was useless in the kitchen. One of Chris's favorite jokes was that he would burn salad if he was allowed anywhere near the kitchen. What Chris didn't know was that Wyatt had.

A few years before the family had adopted Chris, Mary Perry had asked her son to carry the antique glass salad bowl and a small pile of napkins to the dining room and to set them on the table. Wyatt, being the good son he was, obliged and made it to the table without any mishaps. Unfortunately, when he set the bowl on the table, he dropped the napkins into the bowl and knocked over a lit candlestick. The flame of the candle barely managed to catch the edge of one of the napkins, but they caught on fire and quickly burned its way through the napkins and into the salad. By the time the fire was put out, the salad was a pile of ashes and the salad bowl had been charred black. Needless to say, Mary wasn't exactly happy with her son.

Grinning from the happy memory, Wyatt walked to the dining room and set the bag on the table. He opened the boxes that held the burgers and fries and placed them at his and Chris's spots at the table. "Chris, are you going to eat, or can I have yours?"

"You better not touch my food Wy!" came the mock angry response.

"Then hurry up!"

Footsteps echoed through the cold, empty house as Chris approached the dining room. He entered the room and scowled at the food. "Burgers and fries again?"

"If you don't want to eat, you can always make sandwich," Wyatt told him as he opened a ketchup packet and smeared it across the top bun of his burger.

"No thanks. I'll eat tonight, but I think I'm going to make dinner tomorrow. All we've had in the last two weeks is fast food and pizza, and it's starting to make me feel sick. Mom always gets-" Chris stopped talking and picked up his burger.

Wyatt grabbed a fry and ate it. Their mother had always said that eating fast food more than twice a month made you fat. She had gotten onto Wyatt countless times after he got his car that he was going to be as big as a blimp if he didn't cut out on all of the junk he and his friends bought.

Talking about their parents was still a hard thing to do in the Perry household, even though it had been two weeks since they had died. Neither one of the brothers were recovered from the sight of two of the most important people in their world lying in their caskets.

"So how were classes?" Chris asked.

"They were alright, except for History that is."

"The teacher is Professor Crowell, right?"

"Yeah, I swear I know more about history that he does."

"You've gotten C's in every History class you've taken since you were in ninth grade!"

"I know! Professor Crowell really doesn't know anything. I don't know how they expect us to learn anything in his class. This one girl always looks up the questions she misses on her tests in the library to make sure that she gets the right grade. She brought photocopies from a couple of books to prove that she had a few of those questions right and Professor Crowell just blew her off. Apparently, every book in the college library is lying because he is the one with the Master's Degree."

"Tell her to report him. She tried to prove that he was wrong and he didn't even look at the papers. The student manual you brought home said that he has to at least check to make sure. As long as she has two other witnesses he can get in trouble. I think that rule was in chapter twelve somewhere."

Wyatt stared at his brother in disbelief. "How do you remember stuff like that? I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning."

Raising an eyebrow, Chris told Wyatt, "You didn't eat breakfast. I tried to wake you up three times and you ran out the door ten minutes before your first class started."

Angrily, Wyatt said, "I can't believe that Dad didn't wake me up-" He stopped short and watched his younger brother for his reaction. Chris tensed, but took another bite of his burger to hide the tears he was trying to blink back.

One of Jonathon Perry's biggest pet peeves had been punctuality, or rather the lack thereof. He ranted every day when he came home from work about this intern that was always late, or how someone hadn't called him when they were supposed to. He had drilled it into his children's heads that they should be five minutes early to everything, and that there is no such thing as being fashionably l ate.

Conversation stopped until the brothers finished their dinners. "It's hard," Chris said finally. "I keep expecting Mom to yell at you to clean your room, or for Dad to come home and ask me how my day was." It was the first time that Chris had really admitted that Mary and Jonathon Perry were dead.

"I know what you mean. I keep hearing Mom humming in the kitchen every time I walk by, and I see Dad sitting in the desk in his office, yelling into the receiver. It's going to take some time to get used to them being gone, isn't it."

//linebreak//

"I don't know about this," Piper said, shaking her head as she chopped vegetables on the counter.

"Piper, it's our only shot. He definitely had a premonition when you touched him. I would recognize the sings anywhere," Phoebe told her older sister. "All we need to do is try to get him to use another one of his powers. We'll need too prove to him that he needs us to train him, and maybe he'll get closer to us as he learns more about his heritage."

"I think Phoebe is right, Piper," Paige said thoughtfully. "It was hard to stay close to you guys when I found you, and I only really stuck around so that my powers couldn't be used against me. Remember when I almost killed that guy who I thought was abusing his kid?"

Stopping her chopping, Piper set the knife down. "That's just it, I don't want him to come to us because he has to, I want him to get closer to us because he wants to."

"If I were him, I wouldn't want anything to do with the people that abandoned me," Leo said, "especially after he lost the parents that he loved more than anything. Other than his brother that is."

"He doesn't know why we abandoned him!" Piper cried out, "It was for his own safety! We thought we were going to die, and we knew that they would find him if we left him at Dad's."

Phoebe started to pace back and forth. "But he doesn't know that. As far as he knows we abandoned him, and his parents adopted him. It would feel like he were betraying their memories if he accepted us back into his life."

"Would everyone stop referring to those people as his parents!" Piper yelled. "They are _not_ his parents, Leo and I are!"

Paige looked at Piper wearily. "You two are his biological parents, but as far as he is concerned, the Perrys are the one's who tucked him in and read him bed time stories. I still of Patty as my mother and my father, not Mom and Dad."

Piper picked up the knife and started chopping wildly. "I just wish we could go back and take him to Dad's, instead of leaving him in front of a church. We didn't want to abandon him, but we thought we didn't have a choice."

"We know Piper, but Wyatt doesn't," Leo said. "We need to take this as slowly as possible."

Phoebe stopped her pacing. "How are we going to trick him into using his powers? That's the only flaw in our plan."

"I think I have an idea," Paige said slowly, a plan slowly starting to form in her head.

//linebreak//

An extravagant aroma of tomatoes, herbs, and spices floated through the Perry residence. Wyatt, following his nose, left his bedroom and walked toward the kitchen. When he arrived, he asked from just outside the kitchen door, "Hey Chris. How is dinner coming?" Wyatt still couldn't bring himself to enter the room that had been the heart of his mother's domain when she was alive.

Chris was standing at the stove, stirring the pot with a think wooden spoon. Every couple of seconds he would reverse the direction he was stirring and add in another pinch of some herb or another.

"It smells fine." Wyatt shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "The school called earlier today, and they want to know if you can come back tomorrow."

Chris's hand shook as he pulled the spoon from the pot and tapped it against the side to shake loose some of the extra sauce. Setting the spoon on a small plate that was off to the side, he replied, "I'm not ready to go back to school Wy."

"I know you don't want to, but I think you need to get out of the house."

Chris whirled on his brother angrily. "No! I don't want to go back to school Wyatt!"

"Chris, you need to go back to school. You haven't left the house since the funeral, and Mom and Dad would want us to get our lives back to normal as soon as possible.

Chris walked to the small kitchen table and sat down on a chair, burying his face in his hands. "I can't go back to school Wy. I can't."

"Why not Chris? Why don't you want to go back to school?"

"I'm not going back to school," Chris repeated.

"One more week, Chris," Wyatt relented, "but you are going back next week, whether you want to or not."

"Fine." Chris lifted his head out of his hands and looked at the stove. "Is the water in that pot boiling yet?"

Wyatt looked away from his brother to see which pot he was talking about and replied, "Yeah, it's boiling. When is the food going to be done?"

"The noodles need to boil for about ten minutes, then it'll be ready. Do you want to eat in here or in the dining room?"

"In the dining room. I still don't think I'm ready to be in the kitchen for very long yet."

Chris walked over to a cabinet and, opening the door, pulled out two plated and two glasses. Pulling open a drawer beneath the cabinet he pulled out a pair of knives and forks. He took them over to his older brother and asked, "Will you set the table for me? I need to watch the noodles and make sure that they don't burn on the bottom of the bottom of the pot. I'll bring the drinks in a minute."

"Sure, just give me a second. I need to put the garlic bread in the oven."

"Alright," Wyatt said as he took the collection of dinnerware, "I can't wait to eat that spaghetti, Chris." Wyatt walked through an entryway in the kitchen and walked by the double doors that lead to the backyard. Entering the dining room, he stopped just inside.

There were so many happy memories that assaulted him in every room he entered in the house. His mother had gone through so much trouble to make each and every room in the house as homelike as possible. There was a perfect balance of bought furniture and hand-made knick-knacks. Looking at the wall right across from him, Wyatt saw a framed drawing he and Chris had made on Chris's seventh birthday.

Chris had been with them for a few months when Mary had announced that it was his birthday in a few days, and asked him what he wanted to do. Unfortunately, Chris had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, and it set Mary onto another one of her rants. Once she had calmed down enough though, the family explained to Chris what a birthday was and asked him again what he wanted to do. Chris had reluctantly asked if they could draw pictures together.

The drawing that Wyatt and Chris had done was one of the entire family; Jon, Mary, Wyatt, and Chris. Immediately seizing it, Jon and Mary framed it and hung it up in the dining room, as it was one of the first activities that the new brothers had done together.

Deciding that he had reminisced enough, Wyatt entered the room and started setting the table. When he was done he sat at his place, which was right across from Chris's.

A few seconds later, Chris came in the room carrying two diet Dr. Peppers and a paper plate with garlic bread on it. "The food is done, I just need to bring it out."

"Alright," Wyatt said happily, "This will be the first time in a while that I've had your spaghetti. I've kind of missed it."

Chris set a soda in front of Wyatt and put the other in front of his own plate. "Mine still isn't as good as Mom's though," he said as he used a fork to put a piece of garlic bread on both plates. With his task done, he exited the room as fast as he could.

Wyatt glared at the table in front of him. It didn't matter what direction he tried, every conversation went back to their parents, and it was starting to hurt Chris.

A few moments later, Chris came back into the room carrying a large, silver pot of spaghetti with two pot holders on his hands. Setting the food on the table, he informed his older brother, "I'm not really that hungry right now, Wyatt."

"What? You've been slaving away for hours on this, you need to eat Chris!"

"I will eat, Wy, just not right now."

"I don't know," Wyatt said worriedly, "You haven't eaten a lot lately. Besides, we've hardly spent any time together since Mom and Dad-"

"I'm fine Wyatt," Chris interrupted. "I'm just not hungry right now. I'll eat later, I promise."

"Alright," Wyatt yielded, "but I want you to eat, okay? You've lost some weight since the funeral, and it's starting to scare me."

"Fine."

//linebreak//

The Charmed Ones and their whitelighter stood, staring up at the Perry Residence. The group couldn't help but think that this was the house that Wyatt had lived in for eighteen years, the house that Wyatt had grown up in. They could see that the house was a beautiful pale blue that reflected the sun onto the manicured lawn and the tenderly cared-for flower garden.

"Are we going to talk to Wyatt, or stand out here looking like idiots for another half-hour?" Paige asked as she lifted her eyebrow towards her sisters.

"Let's go," Phoebe said nervously, "we really do look like idiots, and I want to get out of the cold."

The group nervously walked to the front door and stopped just in front of the door, staring at it as if they had never seen anything like it.

Finally, Piper snapped. "Damn it, somebody ring the damn doorbell!"

Hesitantly, Paige reached out her hand and put her finger to the button. "Are we sure about this? The last time didn't go so well." Seeing the angry glares she received, she jabbed the bell and they heard a deep bell sound ring through the house.

"See," Leo said, "that wasn't so bad." Paige glared at him.

They heard the yell of, "I'll get it!" from inside the house and the clatter of footsteps as someone ran towards the door.

Finally, it opened, and Chris stood at the door. His face remained passive, but they could tell that he recognized them. "Can I help you?" he asked politely.

"Yes, can we talk to your brother?"

* * *

Author's Note: Ah, the plot thickens. Don't forget to leave a review!

Word Count: 7969


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Charmed.

**Author's Notes:** Oh my God! I can't believe it took me so long to update! I feel horrible! lol, just kidding. I do feel bad, but I'm updating, and you should be happy, even if it is such a short chapter e.e Anyways, this chapter covers a lot of important ground, the next chapter is going to be fluff (I think), and then we should start hitting some of that wonderful angst, so we'll see how it goes.

Alright, here's the deal. I started a Charmed Fan Fiction Forum, and I'd love it if you guys would go and join. I'd prefer if you posted and helped get it off the ground, but if you absolutely can't, I understand. Just go to my profile and click on my homepage, and it'll take you there. Hope to see you there!

* * *

_Finally, it opened, and Chris stood at the door. His face remained passive, but they could tell that he recognized them. "Can I help you?" he asked politely._

"_Yes, can we talk to your brother?"_

-------

Before he could respond, the decision was taken out of Chris's hands. "Chris, who's at the door?" a voice asked from inside.

"Those charity people from the other day," Chris replied, and they heard rushed footsteps approaching the door.

The door opened, and Wyatt was staring at the group with a horrified expression. "Chris, go to your room," he said, turning to give his brother a smile, "I'll take care of it." Chris snorted, but did as asked.

Wyatt stepped outside, closing the door behind him. Rubbing his arms to ward off the cold, he asked, "What do you want?"

The Halliwells looked at each other nervously, and Phoebe chuckled slightly, tossing her hair behind her head with a quick flick of her wrist.

The group stood outside the house for a minute in silence, before Wyatt shook his head and turned towards the door. "If you aren't going to talk, don't bother coming back."

Panicking, Piper lunged forward and grabbed hold of Wyatt's elbow. "Wait!" she yelled, causing Wyatt to stiffen.

_A woman with long brown hair singing to a blond, blue eyed toddler as she held him in her arms._

"Are you okay?"

Blinking, Wyatt wrenched his arm free and asked, "What in the hell was that?"

"What was what?" Paige asked, catching her sister as Piper stumbled backwards. "What in the hell are you doing? You're twice Piper's size!"

"What are you talking about?" Wyatt yelled back, "She grabbed me first!"

Phoebe glared and yelled, "That's still no way to treat your mother young man!"

"What in the hell do you mea-" Wyatt took a couple of steps back and stared at the foursome before him. "No," he said, shaking his head. "There's not way you think-"

Leo stepped forward, "Hey, we understand that this is a lot to take in, and we know that this really isn't the best time to tell you, but we do have a reason-"

Wyatt interupted him, "Damn right it's not a good time! Why in the hell would you come here and try to lie to me, saying that you're my 'family', just after _my parents_ died last week?"

Piper stepped forward to stand near her husband. "Wyatt, we are your family. We were going to handle this a little more delicately, but-"

"Get off of my property," Wyatt shouted, "you are _not_ my family!"

"Wyatt, we are your family!" Piper desperately said, "And we did have a good reason to leave you on that doorstep-"

"I told you to get off of my property! If you're not gone in five minutes, I'm going to call the police!" Wyatt opened his door and slammed it angrily.

"Well that went well," Paige muttered as they headed towards the S.U.V.

//linebreak//

Wyatt sighed and leaned against the door as he closed it behind him. Why were they trying to hurt him like this? They couldn't prove that they were his parents, and even if they were, Wyatt wasn't interested. He had had parents whom he loved, and now he had to focus on Chris.

"What did they want?"

Chris's calm voice made Wyatt jump, and the elder brother glared as the younger snickered. "Well?" Chris demanded, "what did they want?"

Wyatt sighed and answered, "Nothing really. Nothing you should be worried about."

"Come on, Wyatt, just tell me! We never used to keep secrets from each other!"

Smirking slightly, Wyatt teased, "Curiosity killed the cat."

"And satisfaction brought him back." Muttering under his breath, Chris added, "Not that it did Nemo any good."

Wincing at the mention of their mother's old cat, Wyatt tried, "Whatcha talking about? Nemo ran away."

Rolling his eyes, Chris dryly informed his brother, "Wy, you ran over the cat 'cause you weren't paying attention when you were backing out of the driveway."

Wyatt remembered the incident with vivid memory. Chris's birthday had been the day before, and, per family tradition, Chris didn't have to go to school for a few days. Unfortunately for the older, he had hung out with his brother, joking and talking the night before and had woken late. By an hour.

He had rushed through his morning routine and had been pulling out of the driveway fifteen minutes after his mom had woken him up. He had been sure he was going to make it to school before the first bell rang, but a bump accompanied by a sickening squelch ended any hope he had. Getting out of the car, Wyatt had prayed that it wasn't what he thought it was. Maybe his mom had left one of the boxes of fruit on the driveway, or maybe it had been a squirrel. He looked; it wasn't a squirrel.

After panicking for ten minutes about what he was going to do, the choice had been taken out of his hands when his father came out of the house asking him why he hadn't left for school yet. After quietly chewing his son out for a few minutes, Jon helped Wyatt to get rid of the cat's body before Mary saw it.

The only one who was genuinely sad that Nemo had "run away" was Mary; everyone else hated the cat with a passion, and the cat had definitely returned the feeling.

Shaking his head from the memories, Wyatt asked, "How do you know about that? Dad swore he wouldn't tell anyone."

Chris blushed and murmured, "It doesn't matter." Setting his face in a hard expression, he yelled, " Why won't you tell me what they want?"

"Because it doesn't matter and you don't need to know!" Wyatt snapped. "God Chris, it's none of your business!"

"It_is_ my business! They're bothering you, and you never talk to me anymore!"

Wyatt growled, "Chris, I talk to you all the time, but I don't want to talk about this. Go to your room."

"Fine!"

Chris whirled and stomped up the stairs. A few moments later a door slammed. Wyatt sighed and quietly walked to his room; he had an essay to type.

//linebreak//

The group of sullen adults walked into the Manor, Leo trailing behind so he could gently shut the stained-glass door. Phoebe and Paige were keeping their eyes downcast and remaining quiet. Calmly putting her coat on the rack, Piper turned to her sisters. "Maybe you should go home, your families probably need you, you guys have been here for days."

Piper turned her back on her family and buried her face in her hands as her shoulders started to shake. Leo carefully moved so that he could hug her from behind. "Piper, it'll be okay."

"No it won't Leo!" Piper shouted. "It won't be alright! He hates us! And he's right, he _should_ hate us, hate me!"

Phoebe gently stepped forward and rubbed her older sister's arm. "Piper, he doesn't hate us. I couldn't get a good read on Wyatt, but I didn't sense hate."

"Phoebe's right," Paige added, "I've never hated Patty and Sam. The only feeling I ever had was sadness because I didn't understand why they abandoned me. Was it my fault? Maybe I wasn't good enough. Piper, his parents are dead, and he doesn't have anyone to lash out at except himself."

"I understand Paige," Piper said, leaning against her husband and clenching her eyes, "but it still hurts. He won't even give us a chance!"

The quartet waited in silence for a minute before Phoebe's cell phone went off. Flipping it open hurriedly, she gasped, "Peyton, what is it honey? A demon? What did he look like? I'll be right there honey."

She snapped her phone shut. "I gotta go. A demon attacked and the girls barely held him off long enough to get away. Paige, can you orb me over there?"

Piper's face set in a hardened expression; no one attacked her family. "Wait a sec', let me grab the book and I'll come with you." Turning to kiss Leo, she hurried up the stairs to the attic.

//linebreak//

Wyatt sighed and powered down his laptop; he couldn't concentrate on fifteenth-century Europe when he was feeling so guilty about lying to his brother. He didn't understand it, why couldn't he tell Chris about those people? It didn't matter if they thought he was their long-lost-son, he wanted nothing to do with them. Well, that wasn't true; if they were his family, he wanted to ask why he wasn't good enough, why they had abandoned him.

Sighing, Wyatt closed the laptop, clearing his thoughts as he stood up. He and Chris needed to spend some time together, they hadn't done anything just the two of them for a long time.

Grabbing a coat out of his closet, he left his room and closed his door behind him. Crossing the hall between his and Chris's room, he rapped on the door and opened it. After he stepped inside, he shook his head in amusement.

Chris's desk faced away from the door and the brunet twelve-year-old was tapping away at the keys of his computer as a dark classical piece reverberated through the room. Wyatt stood watching his little brother for a few moments before remembering why he had come in the room in the first place.

"Chris," he called, "Chris!"

The younger Perry jumped and turned down the volume on his computer. His face was pained as he turned to look at his brother. "What do you want Wy?"

Wyatt smiled. "What's that piece called? I could almost tolerate listening to it."

Narrowed eyes leveled at the "I-only-listen-to-rap-and-R&B" older brother. Chris replied, "Rex Tremendae, Mozart."

Nodding in acceptance, Wyatt pushed on with his reason for disturbing his brother, "Hey, do you want to go out to eat and catch a movie? We haven't gone anywhere just the two of us since summer, and I think you need to get out of the house."

Chris hesitated, casting a quick glance at his computer, before agreeing. "Sure. Let me grab a coat and I'll be downstairs in a 'sec."

Smiling, Wyatt left the room. Maybe this would help things between them get better...

* * *

Word Count: 9649 


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Charmed, nor any of the characters. The only thing that is mine are the characters and the plot.

* * *

The sky outside was bright blue, fluffy white clouds gently gliding across the endless expanse. Sliding into the driver's seat and buckling his seat belt, Wyatt smiled at Chris. "Buckled up?"

Taking Chris's look, which clearly said "Duh.", as an affirmative answer, Wyatt inserted his key into the ignition and twisted the key halfway. Immediately, violent words and a steady beat blasted from the stereo and Wyatt hurriedly turned it off, fearfully checking to see what Chris's reaction would be; the younger Perry detested rap.

Chris shot his older brother a playful glare, remarking to the air, "Guess he's still trying to kill even more of his brain cells."

The elder gave his younger brother an icy look. "Excuse me?"

Feigning surprise, Chris turned from the window to face his brother. "Did I say that out loud?"

Wyatt harrumphed angrily and turned the car on all the way. "Don't act so innocent you brat." Wyatt was now struggling to contain his smile; Chris smiling full out. Both of them laughed as they pulled out of the driveway.

Tapping his hands on the steering wheel to an unsteady beat, Wyatt asked, "So, what do you want to go see?"

Chris shrugged, turning his attention to the changing scenery outside the window. "I don't know what's playing."

Opening his mouth to give Chris a couple of options, Wyatt stopped his drumming as he realized that he had no idea what was playing either. "I'm sure the ticket usher can help us out."

"Sure," Chris responded dryly, turning from the window just so he could quirk his eyebrow in amusement.

Nervously, Wyatt continued tapping on the steering wheel. The brothers sat in silence for a few minutes, until the older felt he had to break the silence somehow. "Where do you want to eat? I know you're sick of fast food, but there's this new restaurant, a girl in my Resource Management class said it's really good, called Charmed-"

Chris paled, wildly turning in his seat to face his brother in a panic, interrupting with a strangled half yell, "No!" The pre-teen took a couple shaky breaths, clenching his eyes shut. "N- Not there, let's, let's just go somewhere else."

Confused by his brother's harsh reaction, Wyatt increased the pace of his drumming. "Alright, how about we go to Tuscanny's then? You like Italian food, I like Italian food, it's close to the movies _and_ it's cheep, it's perfect." Pausing for a moment, he added an afterthought. "I've been craving their cheesy garlic bread too..."

Turning his attention back to the window, Chris muttered, "Sure."

Wyatt sighed and pulled into the turning lane, wondering why his brother had reacted the way he had. Why would a restaurant that Chris had never ate at bother him so much? He had heard nothing but good news about their food, service, hell, even the owner-slash-head cook was supposed to be wonderful, going out to check on her customers to make sure everything was satisfactory.

Besides that, since when was Chris's favorite word "sure"?

The rest of the drive to the Italian restaurant was quiet, the silence punctured only by Wyatt's mindless drumming and Chris's deep breathing as they waited on red lights and traffic. Finally pulling into a parking space at the well known restaurant, Wyatt sighed in relief as he turned off the car and unbuckled his seat belt. "Ready to eat?"

The only response he got was Chris getting out of the car, slamming the door shut. Sighing again as he got out of the car, Wyatt looked at the main entrance. Why had things turned so sour? The outing had seemed like such a good idea, but now he was having second thoughts; maybe Chris wasn't ready to go out yet. That had been Chris's main argument to when he had to go back to school, that he wasn't ready to face people yet. Maybe he should have listened to his younger brother...

Wyatt caught up with Chris inside the restaurant, where he found the youngest Perry filling out a form that was titled, "Make Your Own Pasta!" Grabbing a form and a pen, Wyatt took a quick glance around as he filled out his order. The place still looked the same as it had the last time he'd been there, with his last girlfriend, Jess.

The main entrance let into the cashier's area, which was just in front of the kitchen, with only a small hole in the wall servicing as communication between the chefs and the cashier. Off to the right was the dining area, where people could fill their glasses with any kind of drink they preferred, right next to a large window where orders were placed as they were finished.

Catching the cashier's eye, she flashed him a flirtatious smile and mouthed, "Yours?" while jerking her head in Chris's direction.

Wyatt surreptitiously shook his head in the negative. Wordlessly taking Chris's sheet of paper as he finished, he walked up to the still-smiling cashier. The cashier, a pretty brunette with deep brown eyes, flashed him another dazzling smile. "My name's Alyssa, what will it be today Mr.-" she paused, expecting him to provide his name.

Wyatt smiled gently as he handed her their orders. "My name's Wyatt, and this is my younger brother, Chris," he said as he gestured to his brother, who was looking around the room, having no interest in the conversation.

"Nice to meet both of you," Alyssa smiled as she took a blue highlighter and struck through their choices. She tallied up their orders and inputted them into the computer in front of her, declaring, "Ten ninety five."

Wordlessly Wyatt handed her a twenty and she gave him back his change. The young brunette turned and placed the orders on the ledge of the window, striking the hand bell as she yelled, "Order!"

Alyssa turned back and fished two brown glasses from underneath the counter. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Chris took his glass with a quiet, "No, thank you," and entered the dining area to fill it and pick out a table.

"He's really shy," Alyssa observed, settling her arms on the counter and resting her head on her hands.

Wyatt nodded, still staring in the direction that Chris had gone. "Yeah... Our parents just died, and he's having a really hard time getting through it."

Alyssa gasped and shot up to a standing position, putting a hand over her mouth. "I'm so sorry!"

Smiling softly, Wyatt turned to the guilt-stricken cashier. "It's alright, you didn't know." His smile morphing into a sad sigh, he continued, "I'm just worried about him."

"Of course you are!" Alyssa declared, her facial expression changing from guilty to worried. "How are you holding up?"

Opening his mouth to respond, Wyatt realized that he didn't know. He'd been so busy worrying about Chris that he hadn't had time to worry about himself. "I don't know," he answered simply, "I don't think it's sunk in yet."

Alyssa sent a reassuring smile his way, and, with an air of determination, ruffled through her purse until she found a piece of paper and a pen. Writing her something with a flourish, she handed him the slip of paper, saying, "Well, if it ever gets too hard, or if you just need someone to talk to, you can call me, alright?"

Wyatt accepted the paper with a smile and nodded. "I will, thanks."

Turning around, Alyssa peeked through the window. "I think your food's done."

Sure enough, a man's voice yelled out, "Shrimp fettuccine alfredo with basil and parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs with parmesan!"

Wyatt gave the pretty cashier a smile and said, "I'll call you soon, alright?"

"Hope so."

/linebreak/

"Man, that was good," Wyatt moaned, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his stomach. In the last half hour, the restaurant had gotten more crowded, and the room was filled with amicable chatting from it's patrons.

He and Chris had joked about the various patrons while eating their food, and Wyatt was starting to change his mind. Maybe Chris's dark mood had been a bout of his depression; he had cheered up considerably once he had eaten.

Chris rolled his eyes and swirled his sweet tea with the straw. "You've said that twenty times already, give it a rest, Wy, I got it." The dark-haired youngster drained his glass of it's remaining liquid. "Besides, my spaghetti is a lot better."

Conceding the point, Wyatt nodded; Chris's pasta _was_ a lot better than anything than could come out of this place. Of course, not even Chris could compare to their mother's-

Wyatt flinched and started tapping on the table, trying to end that thought before it ruined the good mood he had been trying so desperately to build up. Chris winced slightly, but recomposed himself; Wyatt knew his thoughts had followed the same path as his own.

Softening his tapping, Wyatt cleared his throat and spoke, "So there's really nothing you want to see? I mean, I figured you'd watch some TV and would know what would be playing..."

A bratty child three tables over suddenly let out a scream and threw his plate of spaghetti across the room, screaming about how he didn't, "want green stuff in his food". Chris snorted as the parents tried to placate him by offering to go and get some macaroni and cheese.

Alyssa came into the room wheeling a mop bucket and a mop, grimacing in Wyatt's direction. Wyatt chuckled and waved merrily at her, laughing even harder when her grimace turned into a glare.

Catching Chris's questioning eye, he jerked his head forward, indicating for Chris to turn around. Chris took one look at the cashier struggling to ask the parents of the small child to "please leave" over his screams of how he wanted ice cream, and quickly ducked back in his seat, clenching his eyes shut, trying not to laugh at the poor cashier's predicament.

Wyatt leaned forward and beckoned for Chris to do the same. "She gave me her phone number, you know."

Sighing, Chris leaned back in his chair and smirked. "Are you gonna call her? You haven't been on a date in a long time. Not since you and Jess broke up, I think."

Shuddering at the mention of his ex-girlfriend, Wyatt answered the question. "Dunno. She seems sweet, and I haven't gone out with a girl in a while..."

An emotion flashed across Chris's face, but his face was impassive again before Wyatt could identify it. "You need to get out more," Chris said quietly. "It'd be good for you."

Forcing a smile onto his face, Wyatt joked, "What, you tired of hanging out with me already?"

Chris laughed, a genuine laugh that lifted Wyatt's spirits. Today might not have been such a disaster after all.

"Of course not, Wy!," he gasped, "I could never get tired of you."

Wyatt smiled, a real smile this time, and stood up. "Well, do you think we should go try and see if there's a movie we wanna watch?"

"Could we rent one instead? I don't really want to go to the movies..." Chris trailed off, lowering his head so he was looking at his feet.

Inwardly, Wyatt cursed. How could he have forgotten? Jon Perry had loved to go to the movies with Chris, it was something they did just the two of them for some bonding time.

Mary had cooked with him, and Chris had taken to it immediately. Together the two of them would spend hours in the kitchen, Mary showing the newest Perry how to cook and bake various dishes.

Wyatt had always been there in the night, when Chris would wake from nightmares sobbing and scared. The older brother would hold him and make him feel safe until the child cried himself back to sleep. During the day, Wyatt had always just poked his head in on Mary and Chris, or gently teased and played with his younger brother.

For the first couple weeks after Chris's adoption, Jon had always felt out of place with the newest Perry. The poor father just couldn't find a way to bond with his newest son, and Chris always shied away from him when he went anywhere near the six year old. Finally, a full month and a half after the adoption, Jon had walked into the kitchen, picked Chris up and placed him on his shoulders, ignoring his protests that his "cookies were gonna burn". Telling Mary they were going to the movies, the duo disappeared until after ten o'clock. When they came back, Chris was nestled comfortably in Jon's arms, a smile on his face. Father and youngest son had made a point of going to the movies at least once every other weekend after that, and they always came back smiling about something that they never deemed to share with the wildly curious Wyatt and Mary.

Clearing his throat while banishing his thoughts, Wyatt nodded. "Sure. Do you know what you wanna get?"

Chuckling humorlessly, Chris stood. "No, not really. You can pick."

/linebreak/

Weighing a movie case in both hands, Wyatt asked, "Chris, happy _Wizard of Oz_, or corny _Monty Python and the Holy Grain_?" The blond turned around to where his brother stood.

Chris looked pale, clenching his arms to his stomach. The younger boy looked as though he was struggling to stand. "Wyatt," he whispered, "I feel like I'm going to-"

Before Chris got any farther he turned and raced to the bathroom. Cursing, Wyatt shoved the cases back onto a random shelf and chased after him.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, sorry about taking so long. Heh. My bad. At least the chapter's done now, right? ducks I'm sorry!

If it's any excuse, I've been really busy with a lot of projects, not to mention school. Yeah, school sucks e.e At least I'm trying though, right?

Also, I'm not abandoning FSC... I just don't know when I'll actually work on it. I can't even read the darn thing without shuddering, I mean, com'on, THAT thing needs to go off and die. I'm kidding. I'm going to finish Adopted, and then I'll either start something new or actually get up the nerve to finish that, I swear.

Well, please don't forget to review, y'all don't know how much they mean to me )

Adios!

Neb

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